"...all my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb and my mom always tolld me to try and lern just like Miss Kinnian tells me but its very hard to be smart and even when I lern something in Miss Kinnians class at the school I ferget alot." (Keyes 3)
Plot: Charlie Gordon is a mentally retarded adult who goes to the Beekman Colledge Center for Retarded Adults. He works in Donner's Bakery for one of his uncle's friends. He is recomended by his teacher Miss Kinnian to these scientists, Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss, to try this experiment on him that will triple his intelligence level. They have never tried it on a human before, only on animals and, they finally got it to work on a mouse named Algernon. Charlie starts to go to this labrotory and starts taking all of these tests. He races this mouse through this maze and plays mind games and brain teasers with the mouse. He always loses, but ends up making friends with Algernon. Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss decide that Charlie will be the one to go under the knife and go through the procedure. He is asked to write these progress reports and the whole book is told through these progress reports that he writes. You can slowly see by his spelling and grammar that the experiment is actually working. He is slowly getting smarter and smarter as he works with Miss Kinnian. Soon he becomes extremelly smart and starts to realize that the people he thought were his friends at the bakery really are not his friends at all. They make fun of him all the time and mess with him but he has never been smart enough to realize it. He is now smart enought to and finds out who his real friends are and finds out that he is just turning into a giant science experiment. He decides to run away and get an apartment, after he is fired, in New York and makes friends with his neighbor Fay Lillman. Charlie starts to have physical relations with this woman and starts his own research. He starts to find out that Dr. Strauss' calculations were off and Algernon starts to slowly deteriorate and eventually dies. He now starts to wonder what will happen to him. You will have to read the rest of the book to find out what happens to Charlie and if he stays smart, and if he ever finds his family. Will he ever be able to go back to the old Charlie Gordon? You will just have to find out for yourself.
Characters: Charlie Gordon, a 32 year old mentally retarted man, who works at Donner's bakery is the main character. (Keyes 2) There is also his teacher, Miss Kinnian, at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults, where Charlie goes to try to learn, although it is physically imposible for him to retain any new information. Miss Kinnian is the one who recommends Charlie for the experiment that is the center of the book. The scientists that Miss Kinnian recommends Charlie to are Professor Nemer and Dr. Strauss. They ask Charlie to write a journal through progress reports. The entire story is told through his progress reports. They also ask Charlie to take these tests and races against this mouse named Algernon. Algernon has had the same operation that Charlie has had. His intelligence has increased by three times and Charlie has made friends with the mouse. Charlie also has another friend/lover. Charlie's neighbor Fay Lillman in New York becomes a friend and a lover to Charlie. The other people in the story are Charlie's so called friends at the Bakery and Mr. Donnar, who is his boss.
Why was this book on the list of Outstanding Books for the College Bound?
This book has been placed on the College Bound Book list because it is a book about how you should be grateful of what you have. That is the real lesson or moral to the story. Charlie had everything in his life going happy and fine. He just wanted something so bad that he took drastic measures to get it. He risked his life just to become smart, and this book tells what really happens when you sacrifice everything that you hold dearly to you just for a dream. Flowers for Algernon is the perfect story to give a very greedy person and I thought it was one of the greatest books I have ever read. It was also an eye opener to me to show me that I shouldn't be greedy because it will just come back to bite me in the long run.
What makes this book outstanding?
The elements that make this book outstanding are pretty clear as soon as you start reading it. The way Daniel Keyes writes the book through Charlie's progress reports are just pure genious. It is a way of making the book more interesting, and makes you feel more part of the story. You feel like you are actually talking to Charlie himself. He even takes the time to spell everything out like a mentally challenged person would. It shows you how he is getting smarter instead of just telling you that he got smarter.
Also, how Daniel Keyes tells the story in first person is a pretty good element. This also helps to get you more into the book in the beginning. It made me want to keep reading the book because it was like I was there. Reading it wasn't a bore like most books are, it was actually kind of fun which may sound crazy. I thought that Daniel Keyes also kept the plot rolling along keeping the action up to pace. I can't stand it when authors start to just drag on with one subject when you get the point he is trying to make in the first three sentences. Daniel Keyes keeps the book rolling in a fast and exciting pace that keeps you wondering what is going to happen next. I never would have seen any of the events coming until I had started reading. It kept an easlily bored person like me interested.
I don't think there was a lot of symbolism in Flowers for Algernon. There was one that I could see. Algernon kind of represented Charlie. How he wasn't very smart at all but with the surgury he too got very smart and lost it all. The cheese that he was always racing to get could symbolize the prize in life. You work hard all your life to get that one goal. Then what do you do when you get it though. Just like Algernon got it in the end of the maze, he ate it and then what? He got so smart just so he could get that cheese, and now he gets it everytime so now what does he do? He now has no more challenge in life. The last example of symbolism that I could find was the maze. It symolized life. Everyone has to work their way through it. Some people rush through it and realize they went through it so fast that they never got to really experience anything. Everyone is just trying to get to the end. These are a couple examples of symbolism that I could find in Flowers for Algernon.
Why would I recommend this book to someone else?
I would definately recommend this book to someone else to read because it was personally the best book that I have ever read. It is a little fictional but it definately gives a good example of what can happen if you get too greedy. It also shows that every person has some potential in them if they just try hard enough they will succeed. That is exactly what Charlie did. He may not have stayed smart for very long but he did become one of the smartest people in the world for the little while he was smart. He went from a mentally challenged adult to a brillian scientist. It did all wear off and he did lose all of his friends but that is the small price to pay for your dreams to come true. That really shows that everyone does have the potential if they set their mind to it. This is definately a GREAT book.
Plot: Charlie Gordon is a mentally retarded adult who goes to the Beekman Colledge Center for Retarded Adults. He works in Donner's Bakery for one of his uncle's friends. He is recomended by his teacher Miss Kinnian to these scientists, Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss, to try this experiment on him that will triple his intelligence level. They have never tried it on a human before, only on animals and, they finally got it to work on a mouse named Algernon. Charlie starts to go to this labrotory and starts taking all of these tests. He races this mouse through this maze and plays mind games and brain teasers with the mouse. He always loses, but ends up making friends with Algernon. Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss decide that Charlie will be the one to go under the knife and go through the procedure. He is asked to write these progress reports and the whole book is told through these progress reports that he writes. You can slowly see by his spelling and grammar that the experiment is actually working. He is slowly getting smarter and smarter as he works with Miss Kinnian. Soon he becomes extremelly smart and starts to realize that the people he thought were his friends at the bakery really are not his friends at all. They make fun of him all the time and mess with him but he has never been smart enough to realize it. He is now smart enought to and finds out who his real friends are and finds out that he is just turning into a giant science experiment. He decides to run away and get an apartment, after he is fired, in New York and makes friends with his neighbor Fay Lillman. Charlie starts to have physical relations with this woman and starts his own research. He starts to find out that Dr. Strauss' calculations were off and Algernon starts to slowly deteriorate and eventually dies. He now starts to wonder what will happen to him. You will have to read the rest of the book to find out what happens to Charlie and if he stays smart, and if he ever finds his family. Will he ever be able to go back to the old Charlie Gordon? You will just have to find out for yourself.
Characters: Charlie Gordon, a 32 year old mentally retarted man, who works at Donner's bakery is the main character. (Keyes 2) There is also his teacher, Miss Kinnian, at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults, where Charlie goes to try to learn, although it is physically imposible for him to retain any new information. Miss Kinnian is the one who recommends Charlie for the experiment that is the center of the book. The scientists that Miss Kinnian recommends Charlie to are Professor Nemer and Dr. Strauss. They ask Charlie to write a journal through progress reports. The entire story is told through his progress reports. They also ask Charlie to take these tests and races against this mouse named Algernon. Algernon has had the same operation that Charlie has had. His intelligence has increased by three times and Charlie has made friends with the mouse. Charlie also has another friend/lover. Charlie's neighbor Fay Lillman in New York becomes a friend and a lover to Charlie. The other people in the story are Charlie's so called friends at the Bakery and Mr. Donnar, who is his boss.
Why was this book on the list of Outstanding Books for the College Bound?
This book has been placed on the College Bound Book list because it is a book about how you should be grateful of what you have. That is the real lesson or moral to the story. Charlie had everything in his life going happy and fine. He just wanted something so bad that he took drastic measures to get it. He risked his life just to become smart, and this book tells what really happens when you sacrifice everything that you hold dearly to you just for a dream. Flowers for Algernon is the perfect story to give a very greedy person and I thought it was one of the greatest books I have ever read. It was also an eye opener to me to show me that I shouldn't be greedy because it will just come back to bite me in the long run.
What makes this book outstanding?
The elements that make this book outstanding are pretty clear as soon as you start reading it. The way Daniel Keyes writes the book through Charlie's progress reports are just pure genious. It is a way of making the book more interesting, and makes you feel more part of the story. You feel like you are actually talking to Charlie himself. He even takes the time to spell everything out like a mentally challenged person would. It shows you how he is getting smarter instead of just telling you that he got smarter.
Also, how Daniel Keyes tells the story in first person is a pretty good element. This also helps to get you more into the book in the beginning. It made me want to keep reading the book because it was like I was there. Reading it wasn't a bore like most books are, it was actually kind of fun which may sound crazy. I thought that Daniel Keyes also kept the plot rolling along keeping the action up to pace. I can't stand it when authors start to just drag on with one subject when you get the point he is trying to make in the first three sentences. Daniel Keyes keeps the book rolling in a fast and exciting pace that keeps you wondering what is going to happen next. I never would have seen any of the events coming until I had started reading. It kept an easlily bored person like me interested.
I don't think there was a lot of symbolism in Flowers for Algernon. There was one that I could see. Algernon kind of represented Charlie. How he wasn't very smart at all but with the surgury he too got very smart and lost it all. The cheese that he was always racing to get could symbolize the prize in life. You work hard all your life to get that one goal. Then what do you do when you get it though. Just like Algernon got it in the end of the maze, he ate it and then what? He got so smart just so he could get that cheese, and now he gets it everytime so now what does he do? He now has no more challenge in life. The last example of symbolism that I could find was the maze. It symolized life. Everyone has to work their way through it. Some people rush through it and realize they went through it so fast that they never got to really experience anything. Everyone is just trying to get to the end. These are a couple examples of symbolism that I could find in Flowers for Algernon.
Why would I recommend this book to someone else?
I would definately recommend this book to someone else to read because it was personally the best book that I have ever read. It is a little fictional but it definately gives a good example of what can happen if you get too greedy. It also shows that every person has some potential in them if they just try hard enough they will succeed. That is exactly what Charlie did. He may not have stayed smart for very long but he did become one of the smartest people in the world for the little while he was smart. He went from a mentally challenged adult to a brillian scientist. It did all wear off and he did lose all of his friends but that is the small price to pay for your dreams to come true. That really shows that everyone does have the potential if they set their mind to it. This is definately a GREAT book.
Works Cited:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=flowers+for+algernon&gbv=2
http://www.prijatelji-zivotinja.hr/data/image_2_1881.jpg